Period 8 - Utopian Communities

Utopian Communities

Brook Farm

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Summary:

• By definition, a Utopian society: "consists of a group of people who are attempting to establish a new social pattern based upon a vision of the ideal society and who have withdrawn themselves from the community at large to embody that vision in experimental form." (National Park Services)

• Utopian communities, whether religious or secular, were created by people who wanted to escape from society. They moved back into nature, where the rapid changes of the industrial revolution were not present.

Cause of the movement:

• "The Hive" at Brook Farm

  Anxiety having to do with the industrial revolution and the changes it brought
• As well as:
  • Inspired by the transcendentalists and European socialism
  • Religious enthusiasm
  • Pioneer mentality

Goal of the movement:

• To create a perfect society and achieve:
  • Communal living
  • Collective ownership of property
  • Peace, love, and happiness

• People living in utopian communities wanted to live in secluded agrarian areas with others of the same beliefs and ideas. In this type of society, they could avoid the vices of overcrowded cities (communal with nature).

• "Arriving in America, some of these colonists hoped to form Utopian societies, self-containing religious or secular communities, agrarian and largely communal in nature, far removed from the perceived vices found in the overcrowded cities. While numerous religious and secular utopian experiments dotted the American landscape, the Shakers, Rappites, the Perfectionists of the Oneida Community, the experiment at Brook Farm and the Amana Colony of the Inspirationists were among the most famous." (National Park Services)

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Tactics and Strategies:
Brook Farm:

• Each member could choose whichever job they preferred to contribute to the community. All members were paid the same amount; occupation did not matter.
• Its residents gained the equal opportunity and time of labor and leisure.
• Its residents also had the opportunity for gaining an education.

Oneida:

• Members of the community practiced "free love" which meant that every male and female were married to each other.
• They rejected the idea of marriage and the traditional family. When children were born, they were not raised by the mother and father, but by the community as a whole.
• Sexual behavior was carefully monitored for the prevention of unwanted pregnancies.

Shakers:

• Shakers stressed the idea of gender equality.
• They isolated themselves from the rest of society because they believed that American life was disorderly and corrupt.
• All property was owned by everyone in the community.

Mormon:

• Joseph Smith created a strong, social structure that "protected" the Mormons from the secular world.
• The Church of Latter Day Saints taught their followers that God was once a man and so they must all aspire to be a god.
• Smith told his converts the likely prospect of achieving eternal bliss.

New Harmony:

• They provided equality for all males, females, and inhabitants in the society.
• Robert Owen instituted a new system of currency: the amount of time one works could be exchanged for commodities worth that same amount of labor.
• By controlling the environment, superior character could be developed.

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Successes and Failures of Utopian Communities:
Brook Farm Successes:

• In the beginning of Brook Farm's construction, many people were willing to join the community. Ripley received many applications.
• Brook Farm succeeded primarily in its education program. The Brook Farm School was considered one of the finest boarding schools in New England. Most staff graduated from universities such as Harvard and Radcliffe. Harvard even recommended the school for students preparing for college.
• Many well-respected literary and intellectual figures were associated with Brook Farm. Some of these people included Nathaniel Hawthorne, John Greenleaf Whittier, and Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Brook Farm Failures/Decline:

• Brook Farm was already financially weak. George Ripley was in a large amount of debt and since the failure of Brook Farm, struggled to pay it.
• Brook Farmers failed to sell their produce because of the growing number of people. Most of the produce grown by the farmers were consumed by the community itself.
• Brook Farm's members failed to find a balance between individual freedom and the demands of the community. Many members left because of this reason.
• The Brook Farm community had to disband when the central building called Phalanstery burned down in 1847 for it failed to pay the debt.

Oneida Successes:

• The Oneidans found success in the industries of produce, canning, silk, tailoring, traps and more.
• One member invented a steel trap that became very successful and helpful to the income of Oneida.
• The society was very well organized. There were close to 300 members in the community.

Oneida Failures/Decline:

• Controversy on the idea of "free love" began to surround the community on its later years.
• Its strong manufacturing businesses began to decline during the early 20th century.
• Outside pressures began to split the community.
• The original members became old and weary. The younger members started to gain different views. (against "complex marriage")

Shakers Successes:

• They have established more than twenty communities during the 1840s. They have also attracted more than 6000 members.
• They had advanced notions of gender and race equality. (They believed that God was neither man nor woman)
• They had a self-sufficient existence as they became to known for their architecture.

Shakers Failures/Decline:

• The Shaker community was flourishing all throughout the 20th century until they introduced celibacy which meant that members had to choose their faith voluntarily.
• Many members left because they had difficulty in putting aside their self-interest for the community's interest.

Mormon Successes:

• Joseph Smith was successful in recruiting many converts.
• Many people today are practicing the faith of the Mormons.

Mormon Failures/Decline:

• There were no clear failures in this utopian society. The faith is still practiced today and the numbers of converts are growing as well.

New Harmony Successes:

• It succeeded in inspiring new communities to emerge with similar views.

  A Shaker service in the 1840s

• Its construction continue to "enchant" Americans.

New Harmony Failures/Decline:

• The community was not united. Its members lacked a strong central belief.
• Many were not committed to carry out Owen's vision of a perfect society.
• The experiment ended lasting only for three years.

These utopian communities all had different backgrounds and histories. The successes of these communities depended on the commitment of its members, its financial income, the society's unification, and much more. It comes to show how much hard work it is to create a new society amonst another. The communities faced many problems that prohibited the growth of the utopia. Even though some of these utopian communities' successes were short-lived, others still exist and even thrive today like the Mormons.

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Key Figures & Key Events:

	Key Figures	Key Events
Brook Farm	George Ripley (1802-1880), minister of the Purchase Street Church in Boston, was a prominent figure in the Transcendentalist movement of the 1830s and 40s. In 1841 he founded the Brook Farm.	Brook Farm was Nathaniel Hawthorne established in West Roxbury, MA (now part of Boston) in 1841 by George Ripley, looking for a new way of Christian life. All participants in one economic unit, around 1620 people, shared a communal dwelling, and divided work among themselves. Though the Utopian experiment was short-lived: a fire destroyed the central building of the community in 1847, soon after the community dissolved, a vast amount of work was left to describe it: Nathaniel Hawthor George Ripley ne’s The Blithedale Romance, Margaret Fuller’s The Dial.
	Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864), a famous American fiction writer, joined Brook Farm in the late 1830s. Several of his works depicted life on the farm: characters from The Blithedale Romance were drawn in part from the men and women he had known in the Brook Farm community. From his experience in the community, he concluded that egotism was the misery of human.
Oneida	John Humphrey Noyes (1811-1886) was the founder and the absolute dictator of the Oneida Communit John Humphrey Noyes y. He led experiments in child bearing, and established traditions as public confession of egotistical behavior.	Oneida Colony was established in1848 between Syracuse and Utica, NY. The colony advocated economic communism, polygamy, and birth control. The leader, John Humphrey Noyes rejected competitive economics but preserved the methods of modern industry. Soon the colony developed into a successful system of factories: “about 600 acres of well-cultivated land, with shoe, tailoring, and machine shops, the latter producing commercially successful traps and flatware among other items; canning and silk factories; and great central buildings and houses for employees.” However in 1879, with pressure from society both external and internal, communism was replaced by joint-stock ownership.
Shakers	Ann Lee (1736-1784), founder of the American Shakers. She was the illiterate mother of four children, all of whom died in infancy or early childhood. These losses convinced her that only by giving up sexual life could human be reconciled to God. In 1774 she immigrated to America, after experiencing little success in England for their celibate idea. With her profound influence on the group, the two-hundred-year community outlasted many of its contemporary societies in America.	Shakers first founded in the late 1740s by Ann Lee in England. Because the meetings were characterized by trembling, shaking, shouting, and singing, they earned the name “Shakers”. Faced with persecution, they immigrated to New York in 1774. After finally settling down in Albany where they lived communally and practiced celibacy. After Ann Lee’s death, new leaders, Lucy Wright and Joseph Meacham put their effort into convert others. Soon the Shakers spread to the North and to the West. In 1825 the population reached a peak of six thousand people. Shaker villages became widely known for their industry, furniture, herbal medicine and seeds. However, after 1850 Shaker membership began to decline rapidly.
Mormons	Joseph Smith (1805–1844), the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as the Mormons. In 1830 he published The Book of Mormon, which according to him was a translation of a set of golden plates describing a visit of Jesus to America. Because of the book, many of his followers believed that he was a prophet.	Mormon movement was the most successful of the many communitarian movements in the nineteenth centu Joseph Smith ry America: membership grew from thirty to over nine million. In 1830, Joseph Smith founded the Mormon Church in rural New York. Through The Book of Mormon, Smith convinced many people that America was God’s chosen land, which provided comfort to many. After the establishment the Mormons moved frequently, not only because they were searching a place to found God’s kingdom, but also because they faced a constant persecution from the anti-Mormons. Finally in 1839 they arrived in Nauvoo, Illinois, where they expanded. However the relatively peaceful existence was interrupted by the series of new doctrines and practices, in which included polygamy. In 1844, Smith was put into jail and was killed by a mob. His successor was Brigham Young, a brilliant organizer, under whose guidance the Mormon community thrived.
	Brigham Young (1801–1877), second president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He managed to transfer Mormon culture from Illinois to the Great Salt Lake Valley, where he created a literal Latter-day Saints kingdom. Thanks to him Mormonism expanded throughout the United States and into many other countries.
New Harmony	Robert Owen (1771-1858), the founder of the co-operative movement. He was manager of a cotton mill in England, and through his careful observation he noticed that workers responded more positively to kindness than to cruelty, which led him to put his reforming ideas into practice. He built a model community with quality housing for his workers, a school, and a day nursery for pre-school children, a playground, and evening classes for adults. By 1816, Owen had opened the New Lanark Community’s Institute for the Formation of Character. In 1824 he sailed to Indiana to set up New Harmony Community. However, most settlers were unsuited to the community life. By 1828, Owen recognized defeat, and handed the estate to his sons and returned to England.	Robert Owen founded New Harmony in 1825 after witnessing the degradation and poverty of the working class in England. Though lacked a particular plan, he created a society in which workers shared work as a whole, instead of viewing themselves as individuals. Economically the community prospered by producing candles, soaps and hats. But soon the community became over crowded, because Owen was not always around to solve the problems. And when in 1826 Owen casted his radical views on denouncing private property and organized religion, many inhabitants left New Harmony to create their own communities. In 1828 Owen sold the land and property.

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Primary Sources:

Mormon Text

• Male Continence, John Humphrey Noyes, 1872: This is a pamphlet in which Noyes eloquently defends his discovery about the possibility and benefits of making love without ejaculation.
• The Book of Mormon: Joseph Smith, March 1830: It is a sacred text of the Latter-day Saint movement. According to Smith, it was a translation of the golden plates that were American prophets from perhaps as early as 25oo B.C. to about 400 A.D., providing a historical record of God's dealings with the ancient inhabitants of the Americas.
• The Shakers - A Visit to their Establishment , Henriette Gouvernet, 1843: This is an article about Gouvernet's experience with the Shakers when she visited the utopian community.

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Links:
Modern Shakers
Robert Owen Museum
Hawthorne in Salem
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Oneida Community Mansion House

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Bibliography:
National Park Services. "Utopias in America." The Amana Colonies - . NPS, 14 Apr. 2009. Web. 15 Nov. 2009. <http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/travel/amana/utopia.htm>.

"Brook Farm." Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. Economic History. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale, 1999. 120. Gale Virtual Reference Library.
Gale. High School. 12 Nov. 2009 <http://go.galegroup.com/ps/start.do?p=GVRL&u=s0003>.

"Shakers." American Eras. Vol. 5: The Reform Era and Eastern U. S. Development, 1815-1850. Detroit: Gale, 1997. 305-307.
Gale Virtual Reference Library. Gale. High School. 13 Nov. 2009 <http://go.galegroup.com/ps/start.do?p=GVRL&u=s0003>.

"Lee, Ann." Encyclopedia of Religion. Ed. Lindsay Jones. Vol. 8. 2nd ed. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005. 5389. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Gale. High School. 14 Nov. 2009 <http://go.galegroup.com/ps/start.do?p=GVRL&u=s0003>.

"Mormonism." American Eras. Vol. 5: The Reform Era and Eastern U. S. Development, 1815-1850. Detroit: Gale, 1997. 299-300. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Gale. High School. 13 Nov. 2009 <http://go.galegroup.com/ps/start.do?p=GVRL&u=s0003>.

Hansen, Klaus J. "Smith, Joseph." Encyclopedia of Religion. Ed. Lindsay Jones. Vol. 12. 2nd ed. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005. 8446-8448. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Gale. High School. 12 Nov. 2009 <http://go.galegroup.com/ps/start.do?p=GVRL&u=s0003>.

Shipps, Jan. "Young, Brigham." Encyclopedia of Religion. Ed. Lindsay Jones. Vol. 14. 2nd ed. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005. 9913-9914. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Gale. High School. 12 Nov. 2009 <http://go.galegroup.com/ps/start.do?p=GVRL&u=s0003>.

Macdonald, Allan. "Oneida Colony." Dictionary of American History. Ed. Stanley I. Kutler. Vol. 6. 3rd ed. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2003. 194-195. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Gale. High School. 12 Nov. 2009 <http://go.galegroup.com/ps/start.do?p=GVRL&u=s0003>.

"Utopian Communities." American Eras. Vol. 5: The Reform Era and Eastern U. S. Development, 1815-1850. Detroit: Gale, 1997. 276-278. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Gale. High School. 12 Nov. 2009 <http://go.galegroup.com/ps/start.do?p=GVRL&u=s0003>.

Print Source: Brinkley, Alan. American History: A Survey. 11th ed. 1983. N.p.: McGraw-Hill, 2003. Print.